When Your Child Goes to Gaza and You Have Only Art to Hold - Live Zoom Meeting

"I hope I never get one of these messages again." — Jodi Sugar

Picture This: Creating Photography in Wartime - with a daughter at the front:

Jodi Sugar, an accomplished local photographer in Tzfat, is is set to be our guest on our next Zoom session this coming Sunday, June 8th, at 20:30 IST 6:30 PM UK, and 1:30 PM EST. Her daughter serves in the IDF in a Search and Rescue role and was on the IDF base at Zikim, near the kibbutz of the same name, the morning of the Oct. 7th - just before the Hamas-led invasion and massacre took place.

In a recent WhatApp chat, Jodi’s daughter uses the term, "hukpatznu," which, in IDF parlance means "we were scrambled" or "we were called up/activated [quickly].”

Emphasizing her rush to go into battle, the native-English-speaker accidentally switched syllables in the Hebrew term, in an example of her haste to alert her mom of her expected impending activity - and that she was at 1 percent battery on her cellphone, and couldn’t chat further:

In her FB post on Wednesday, Jodi shared her apprehensions about her daughter's WhatApp chat — and how her stresses in coping with the uncertainty is reflected in her photography and editing:

"I received a message last night from my daughter saying her unit was on their way to Gaza. She’s in search and rescue. Thank G-d they didn’t have to go in. So I stayed up late creating art with one of my photos. It calms my anxiety. I edited it 3 different ways. The first represents our life blood. Yellows and reds flow through our body like fire. The middle one has lots of details that represents our life. Beneath the surface of life sometimes feeling black and white, there’s so much going on that people can’t see. The third was edited to show green. Green in Kabbalah is the middle column of tiferet, representing beauty and splendor. I’m also obsessed with taking care of my garden. It’s my meditation to water them and give them life. The green in my life.

"I hope I never get one of these messages again."

That same evening, she also held a gallery opening event for her work, hosted at the Tzfat English-language library, where I happen to manage the website and their social media, and wife Miri is a long-term volunteer librarian:

Join us this Sunday, June 8th at 20:30 IST / 6:30 PM UK / 1:30 PM EST for a live Zoom talk with Jodi Sugar. She’ll speak about creating art in wartime, the symbolic language of her photography, and what it means to mother a soldier on the edge of Gaza.

Zoom link:

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74916492860?pwd=obAIHQvkqK21aoZv4OZUgZrQXNKwNB.1

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